Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen was activated from injured reserve Thursday after being out of the lineup since November because of a blood clotting issue.
His most recent appearance came Nov. 2 in a 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers that saw Andersen stop 24 of the 26 shots he faced. Prior to that, he had gone undefeated in four straight starts but had allowed more than three goals in his first two outings of the season.
Getting Andersen back would be the latest chapter in the saga that has become the Hurricanes' goaltending situation this season. While Andersen was recovering, the Hurricanes initially turned to veteran Antti Raanta. The Canes eventually went in another direction with Raanta recording a .856 save percentage through his first 13 games of the season.
Raanta was then sent to the AHL which led to the Hurricanes calling up Pyotr Kochetkov. The rookie goaltender provided the stability that had eluded the Canes in net with the 24-year-old winning six of his 11 starts in December. That opened the door for Kochetkov to become the Canes' starting goalie as he has since gone 16-11-3 with a 2.41 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
Activating Andersen means he joined Kochetkov and Spencer Martin as the three goalies currently on the Canes' active roster. His return comes as the Hurricanes (36-19-6) came into Thursday six points behind the Rangers for the Metropolitan Division lead with 20 games left in the regular season. They are also six points ahead of the Flyers in the division standings.
Earlier in the day, Raanta was placed on waivers. In total, the Canes placed three players on waivers with Raanta joining defenseman Tony DeAngelo and forward Brendan Lemieux. Placing all three of them on waivers allowed the Canes to clear additional cap space ahead of the noon PT/ 3 p.m. trade deadline Friday.
CapFriendly projects that the Hurricanes will have a little more than $5.8 million in deadline cap space.